Mercedes
: "May the land bless us in the name of the Fairies!" : ''-Mercedes rallies her troops before facing Odin once more'' Mercedes is one of the five protagonists of Odin Sphere, she is a young fairy that resides in the forest of Ringford. She's the daughter of the Queen Elfaria and thus the Princess of the Fairy race. Early on in her story her mother was killed in battle with Demon Lord Odin, making her the Queen of her people at a young age. Personality Initially Mercedes is a rather spoiled and carefree young girl. The death of her mother and the responsibilities of being Queen were a humongous weight on her shoulders and she struggled to cope with it. Initially she's prone to panic and become depressed with her fate, though with the help of the cursed Ingway she eventually comes to terms with it and becomes a much stronger person by the end of her story. She develops a crush on Ingway after his true form was revealed, and continued to think of him after he left her. When she finally found him again he was already dead, killed in combat with Cornelius. She breaks into tears at seeing him, calling him a liar as he promised he'd see her again. Alignment Mercedes is described to be Lawful Neutral '''or '''Lawful Good in her storyline. Appearance Mercedes looks quite similar to her Mother, though naturally she's a great deal younger. Mercedes easily seems to be the youngest of the cast, and wears a light green and white outfit, and small white slippers. Her hair is blond and curly, similar to her mother's and is kept in two braids. She wears a wreath of small white flowers atop her head. Her teal wings are notably smaller in proportion to her body than her mother's and are somewhat small, though still well sufficient to allow her to fly. Humorously, her Psypher bow is almost as big as she is. Story Overwhelming Responsibility Mercedes' story starts with her taking her mother's bow into the woods of Ringford to hunt frogs. Elfaria and her nephew Melvin are distressed meanwhile on her lack of awareness of her duties as princess. After, Elfaria was critically wounded in battle with Odin during the Cauldron War and she tells Mercedes in her last moments to be strong, as it would be her duty to be the queen now. Initially Mercedes balks at her new duties overwhelmed, and Melvin steps into her place. Melvin then offers Mercedes to take a vacation from her new duties, promising to handle her duties for her. Mercedes' guardian Mathew became uncomfortable with Melvin's actions, and suggested Mercedes travel to Elrit Forest to request the Sorcerer Beldor's aid. As she traveled through the forest seeking Beldor out, a frog startled her into dropping her bow into a swamp. The frog revealed it was intelligent and could talk and promised to find it if Mercedes would grant her a wish. While the frog was away searching for it, Beldor arrived, and informed the new queen that he was siding with Melvin. With that he sicked his Dragon servant Belial on Mercedes, though the frog arrived just in time with her Bow. Mercedes battled with Belial and defeated him, forcing Beldor to flee. Belial warned Mercedes that rebellion was brewing in Ringford, causing Mercedes to fly away in fear, leaving the Frog behind. Retaking Ringford Mercedes encountered a number of fairy royal loyalists who had traveled to Elrit looking for her. Mathew informed Mercedes that Melvin had taken control of a third of the military and had the support of half the fairy Nobles. A few of the fairy warriors broke free and came looking for Mercedes, though the number she had seemed too few to do anything with. Scared, Mercedes began to panic and ask for somebody, anybody to do something. The frog returned at this point and gave her a few encouraging words, giving Mercedes the strength to take matters into her own hands. Mercedes led her forces to Ringford, and managed to arrive at the Royal palace, where Melvin ambushed her. He sent his Shadow Knight Oswald to slay the young fairy, though the Halja were at the time preparing to collect Oswald, weakening the Shadow Knight's powers and sapping his strength. Because of this, Mercedes was able to defeat Oswald, and her forces retook Ringford from Melvin, who was wounded in the battle and died. Following this the Frog revealed his wish to Mercedes: he was actually a human, cursed into the form of a frog by the Sorcerer Urzur, one of Beldor's allies. The curse could only be broken by the kiss of a powerful fairy, and concluding that Mercedes, being royalty, must be a powerful fairy, he requested her to kiss him and break the spell. Being unfond of frogs and uncomfortable with the idea of kissing a potential poisonous and slimy animal, Mercedes stalls on fulfilling her side of the promise. Finding the Psyphersmith Though peace returns to Ringford for a short while, it was soon broken by the arrival of the Dragon King Wagner, who came to Ringford seeking revenge for his friend Hindel who had been killed by Oswald previous. Since Oswald was already dead they could not calm Wagner, who ordered the fairies to bring his killer to Winterhorn Ridge or he would return to burn Ringford to the ground. Mercedes traveled to the Dragon's roost to attempt to explain the situation to the dragon. Wagner initially laughed at Mercedes' claims that she had killed Oswald, and when the queen showed her psypher in an attempt to prove herself, Wagner became enraged, angered by the sight of a Psypher, the same weapon that killed Hindel. Wagner attempted to kill Mercedes, though she managed to defeat and calm him. She promised to Wagner she would not do evil with her Psypher. Wagner then demanded just what she would do with it, to which Mercedes replied she would defeat Odin. Wagner laughed at her bravery, but allowed her to leave Winterhorn in peace. Back at Ringford, Mercedes realized she would need a stronger Psypher to defeat Odin and his Balor. Therefor she needed the aid of the Psyphersmith Brom. Unfortunately Brom had been sent to the Netherworld previously by Melvin, and none of the fairies knew the way there. Therefor, Mercedes was left with no course of action other than to request Beldor's aid. She sent a message to him in Titania promising him forgiveness and pardon for his previous actions if he aided her. Mercedes and a small entourage traveled to Titania to meet with Beldor, though the sorcerer did not want her forgiveness, and so set an ambush for her. Mathew was captured in the ambush and Mercedes was forced to fight her way through the back alleys of Titania which were no swarming with lesser mages and their summoned beasts. Eventually Mercedes fought her way to the Sewers, where Beldor was waiting for her. He again set Belial on the fairy, though the dragon was unwilling to battle Mercedes again. Beldor attempted to force Belial into battle. His abuse of the dragon angered Mercedes, causing her to withdraw her previous offer and present him with a new one: Aid her or die. Mercedes and Beldor fought, though Beldor managed to trick the princess by attacking her from behind. Before he could succeed, the Frog cast the Pooka Curse upon Beldor, cursing him into the form of a harmless aged pooka. The effort wore the frog out though, and he urged her to escape before the other two wizards arrived. Overcome by pitty for the Frog, Mercedes finally pulled through on her side of her promise, breaking his curse with a kiss. The frog was revealed to be Ingway, who thanked Mercedes and left, saying he had unfinished business, and promising to meet her again. Afterward, Mercedes forces the captured Beldor to direct her to the Netherworld to save Brom. At the first opportunity, the cursed Sorcerer ditches Mercedes and attempts to escape, fearing the likely results of being found by a Halja while still bound and unable to cast magic anyway. Unfortunately for him, his escape caused him his life. A Halja arrives and reaps the helpless sorcerer only moments after he abandoned Mercedes. Meanwhile the fairy princess finds Brom, who is being forced to work on Phozon Crystals under the orders of Queen Odette. Mercedes fights Odette in an attempt to save Brom, and manages to fight valiantly for a time, before a horde of Halja arrive to surround her. Before they could finish the princess, a disturbance suddenly distracts the dead. A lesser specter arrives and informs Odette that King Gallon was causing an uproar in his cell. In fact this was because at that moment Ingway was using the Darkova spell in an attempt at revenge on Odin, indirectly saving Mercedes again. Odette tell her Halja to ignore Mercedes, sending them instead to restrain Gallon, giving Mercedes the chance to escape with Brom in tow. The source of fire Back at Ringford, Brom eventually agrees to create a psypher powerful enough to counter Balor, but informs Mercedes they would need a fire of unmatched heat to forge Phozon Crystals, and thus they needed a sample of the Source Fire kept in the Fire Kingdom. The pair set off for the Volkenon Lava Caves and manage to make it to the fire's shrine without attracting attention. At that moment, King Valentine arrives and informs the pair that Inferno King Onyx was currently away, healing from the injuries dealt to him by Oswald. He also recognizes Brom, explaining that he was the one who commissioned Brom's first Psypher. The pair attempt to escape, only for Valentine to appear in their way again and sick the last dragon Leventhan on them. Mercedes manages to defeat the fledgling world-killer, and the pair escape from the mad king's wrath. Fulfilling duties Back at Ringford, Brom reforges Mercedes' Psypher Tasla, renaming is Riblam. He then informs Mercedes that it is the only weapon in the world able to destroy a Psypher. He then takes his leave, wanting to be with Oswald now that he's learned the Shadow Knight is alive, out of feelings of guilt over his involvement in Oswald's fate. Mercedes rallies her forces for a last attempt to retake the Cauldron, and sends them to battle with a stirring speech that demonstrates how well Mercedes has inherited her mother's spirit. The Vanir manage to defeat the Aesir and send them into a retreat, and Mercedes meets Odin on the battlefield. Odin insults Mercedes and Elfaria, and claims that his victory has come willingly to him. The two do battle, and Mercedes proves she's not as helpless as Odin suspected, destroying Balor and wounding the demon lord. She then forces Odin to promise not to wage war on the fairies again and stay in his own kingdom, threatening him with execution and an invasion of Ragnanival if he disagreed. Odin agrees to the terms, and limps back to Ragnanival to lick his wounds with what few soldiers he had left. Meanwhile the Fairies cheer on their new queen, a time of prosperity on the horizon... And yet it was not to be. Armageddon (Mercedes Death) World tree Ending Ringford was hit hard during the catastrophe, attacked by both the Beldor-controlled Darkova, and the Fire Kingdom. The Fairies were completely destroyed by Onyx's armies, and Mercedes herself flew into battle to stop the Inferno King. Along the way she found the corpse of Ingway, and cried over his death, calling him a liar as he told her they'd meet again. Suddenly Onyx arrives, taunting Mercedes over the destruction of her home. Mercedes enters battle with the Inferno King, and both are mortally wounded in the fight. As she lay dying, Mercedes reveals her true name: Yggdrasil, the name of the World Tree in Norse Mythology. Onyx recalls from the prophecies that the fire is stopped by the world tree, but rallies and says the prophecies were wrong on one account before he died himself: in the blasted lands, there were no survivors. Abilities Being a fairy, Mercedes is naturally capable of flight, though it would stand to reason that with her relatively small wings she is unable to fly indefinitely or very high. Mercedes eventually develops impressive leadership skills, and manages to retain a notable sense of purity throughout the storyline, which Beldor even comments on, though he does go on to call her gullible. Mercedes eventually proved impressive skill with her psypher bow Riblam, though it is possible she would be more skillful with it if she were older, as Riblam is nearly as large as she is. In any case she manages to defeat a number of powerful characters, such as three different Dragons and the Demon Lord Odin. Gameplay As she wields a ranged weapon, Mercedes is unique from other characters. Instead of a power gauge, she has a limited amount of ammo, and must reload when she runs out. Mercedes also has the slowest movement speed and weakest jumping power of the cast, which is made up for in the fact she can fly. Mercedes has a low HP cap and low defense, forcing the player to be more evasive with her. Due to her rapid-fire abilities with Riblam, Mercedes can easily deal high amounts of damage in a short period of time, while remaining relatively safe by staying as far from enemies as possible. Her Psypher also had a slow growth, making her Psypher possibly at the lowest level at the end of the game. But Riblam's power being the highest in the game makes up for her weakness. She fights against Belial, Oswald, Wagner, Beldor, Odette, Leventhan, Odin, and is the foe of Onyx as hinted in the prophecy. Trivia *Mercedes obtains her Psypher bow Tasla from her mother, she takes it to go frog hunting. *Mercedes is the only character who battles the other four members of the playable cast, three times as a boss, and the last time as a playable character. *It is hinted at that the great tree at the end of the Credits is Mercedes reborn into the form of a true World Tree. The red crystal of her Psypher can be seen within the tree's roots. *During gameplay as Mercedes, when using Unlimited Power it gives her unlimited ammo instead, drastically increasing her damage output *Her Psypher is the only one that doesn't learn Cyclone skill. Instead, she learned Piercing Shot. Gallery Category:Main characters Category:Royalty